The use of insect mating disruption (MD) technology is an important component of the modern approach to pest regulation known as integrated pest management (IPM), which combines biological, cultural, physical, and chemical techniques to regulate pest populations while minimizing cost and environmental disturbances. The typical MD technique confuses male insects with pheromones from the natural chemical blends of conspecific females. Sources of sex pheromone are placed in a crop or environment at concentrations sufficient to hide the presence of females. The population of the next generation of larva is thus decreased, as well as the potential for future crop or environmental damage.
Due to regulatory and environmental pressures, insect pest control is moving away from exclusive reliance on organophosphate insecticides. As a result, alternative crop protection strategies, including pheromone MD technology, have steadily increased in general acceptance. Many pheromone MD products are point source dispensers and must be hand applied within the intended environment. Alternatively, sprayable MD products are available, but have generally been thought to suffer from too short a lifetime in commercial applications. The pheromones are often released and dissipate into the environment too quickly to provide effective mating disruption throughout an entire mating cycle of an insect pest, which may last up to 4 to 6 weeks.